


The Eighth Paragon

by Cogentranting



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-19 09:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22708357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cogentranting/pseuds/Cogentranting
Summary: A mini exploration of an alternate version of Oliver's first appearance as Spectre.
Kudos: 5





	The Eighth Paragon

The Waverider shuddered under another assault from the shadow demons outside, as the weary, war-torn heroes who remained waited on the ship’s bridge. The seven paragons, and those who’d been with them before their trip to the Vanishing Point, whom they’d managed to save. They’d retreated to nurse their wounds and strategize, yet no one spoke or offered a plan. Silence choked their thoughts. Until suddenly a hum pierced the air. As one, they spun to stare at the source. 

The paragon detector lit up, unprompted. A moment of rigid waiting. And then… an eighth face appeared on the screen. It was half cast in shadow, partially obscured by a hood. Oliver. In his proper place among the paragons. But the word that appeared below the picture caught them all off guard. Kara had been hope, Barry love, Kate courage. But beneath Oliver was the word “wrath”. 

The heroes stared at the screen in confusion. Ryan Choi was the first to break the hesitant tension. “I thought paragons were supposed to be models of purity and goodness? Isn’t ‘wrath’ a little… dark? And while we’re at it, I thought there were only 7?” 

“Oliver Queen is alive,” the Monitor intoned, suddenly in their midst. “While he was beyond this life, his role as a paragon was unfulfilled, but he has returned and once again there are eight paragons.” 

Mia brushed past Diggle and Sara, coming toward the Monitor. “But he’s alive? My dad is alive?” 

The Monitor turned his head slowly to meet her intense gaze. “He has returned to the living, and he is a paragon once more. But he has become something else as well. The Paragon of Wrath is joined to the Spectre of Vengeance. And together they bring divine justice.”

Kara shared a troubled glance with Kate. “What does that mean?” 

A hint of a smile played at the corners of the Monitor’s mouth. “It means that Oliver Queen will save us all.” 

The cloaked, hooded figure appeared outside the ship like a bolt of lightning. None of the heroes could see his face as they peered out the Waverider’s view-screen, yet none doubted for a moment who it was. He stood unmoving as the thunderous horde of wraiths descended on him. In an instant he was consumed. Mia sucked in a fearful breath as the swirling host blocked out not just her father, but any view of the world outside the ship. A shockwave rocked the Waverider, and a brilliant light blinded them for a moment. In a few second their sight cleared. There were no shadow demons in sight. Only Oliver, alone and unwavering, cast in a steady green glow, with his eyes burning emerald. And then, in a blink, Oliver was on the ship, standing across the bridge. 

The glow dimmed to nothing, but a glimmer of otherworldly green remained in his eyes. The others recoiled slightly as he approached– even Diggle feeling apprehension in seeing this new version of the man he knew so well. An aura of power and violence draped his shoulders like a cloak. The weight of his solemn purpose was contained in that green spark in his eye. But Mia was untouched by their fear. She slipped to her father’s side wrapping her arm around his. His same wrath pulsed in her blood and no manifestation of it could make him unfamiliar to her. In time she would grow to better fit the mantle that her father had passed to her, and as she did, she too would come to learn the lesson it had taken her father years to learn: that wrath can be just as righteous as love or hope or courage. When the innocent are harmed, and you stand face to face with evil, what is more appropriate than wrath? 

Seeing the two framed side by side, the fear of the others faded away. In it’s place came a steady unyielding faith in the hero who’d been their rock for so long, and his reflection in his daughter. Energy thrummed through the entire group, a renewed vigor for the fight ahead. 

The Anti-Monitor would regret awakening the righteous wrath of the Spectre and the Green Arrow. 


End file.
